The Duke debacle

[KC Johnson has followed this case from the beginning and has many insightful post over at Durham In Wonderland ]

Earlier this month, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and Dave Evans were proclaimed innocent of charges brought against them more than a year ago by a stripper with a very shady past and tenuous grip on reality. That was the decision of North Carolina State Attorney General Roy Cooper who had to wrest control of this case from Prosecutor Mike Nifong. Yet, despite that declaration, news media around the country and a significant portion of the Duke faculty and administration continue to attack the three young men, their fraternity, and their lacrosse team.

The media, the faculty, the Duke administration, and Mike Nifong made a conscious decision to rush to judgment upon little evidence except the word of a woman whose background would have cast enough shadow upon her story to warrant much closer scrutiny. The woman’s companion that night said nothing happened. A cab driver put one of the initially four accused on the other side of town when the rape was supposed to have happened. A medical examiner reported no signs of rape on the accuser.

Let’s not even mention the faulty police work (no notes and a biased lineup of only fraternity members, to name just two) and prosecutorial misconduct. Nifong basically declared the players guilty and then started looking for evidence to support his view. When all he could find was evidence to support their innocence, he conspired to hide it from the defense. Any time a prosecutor spends as much time in press conferences as Nifong did, it is not a good thing. A good prosecutor should be looking for facts, not drawing conclusions, during the investigation of an alleged criminal act. Nifong, and the people working under him, did precious little of the former and far too much of the latter. Everything he did was for self promotion with no thought to true justice. Now it looks like he will reap what he has sown.

The Gang Group of 88, that’s the group of professors who signed on to a statement that was made public in April of 2006 only a few short weeks after the alleged rape took place and the Duke lacrosse players were accused, have yet to admit the error of their ways. It basically found the entire fraternity of lacrosse players guilty and condemned their behavior and activities of that night. The gang’s actions caused the spring 2006 lacrosse season to be canceled and resulted in the firing of the Duke lacrosse coach. This despicable academic mob has yet to apologize to anyone for its lynchings. Let’s hope that every student looking for a “quality” education can read between the lines these jerks have drawn.


There have been some who have apologized and here is one that is most elegant:
Apology to Duke lacrosse players not enough By Jemele Hill